The Parenthood Series
by DannyPhanto fan
Summary: Sequel to/Companion Story of "The Art Series" and "The Magic Series"
1. Chapter 1

**The Parenthood Series**

**Disclaimer**_**: I don't own Ben 10 and/or Ben 10: Alien Force and/or any and/or all concepts and/or characters. They are copyrighted to Man of Action and Cartoon Network Studios. Or the song later in the stories, it's by Voltaire. I am a mere Fanfiction author. With far too much time on her hands and no social life.**_

**Author's Notes**_**: Okay, this is a sequel/companion story to both 'The Art Series' and 'The Magic Series'. And just like with 'The Magic Series' you don't really have to read the preceding stories to understand this one. Once again; I do not speak or know Classical Latin and my school does not offer a class. So I am only armed with a Classical Latin Dictionary, examples from Harry Potter, and very vague ideas about Classical Latin grammical rules so please understand that I politely request that when you come across mistakes to either PM me to correct me and/or grit your teeth and bear with me.**_

**Summary**_**: It's time for Devlin to enter the picture, permanently.**_

**Rated**_**: K+-T **_

**Part One: "Previously On…"**

_**Rated: K+**_

As she walked from the employee parking lot onto the campus of Bellwood Elementary, Gwen Tennyson was fairly amused by how much had changed in a little over a year. Bellwood had become an alien metropolis. The masquerade had been lifted, humanity now knew of alien life-forms. And there hadn't been much of a problem about the whole thing really; you would always get religious nutjobs protesting and be suspicious of anything not in their preferred religious scripture but aside from that minority the humans as a whole had been very accepting of their space neighbors and the humans that loved them. She briefly surveyed the children on the playground. Human children and alien children played together without any issues, well any issues you wouldn't also see in a purely human school; there were of course cliques and bullies but even those tended to be comprised of integrated beings of human and nonhuman races.

She slid the key into the door of her classroom and unlocked it, entering swiftly, reaching out to turn on the lights. Even the classes were integrated and most ran fairly smoothly. And there were alien _**teachers**_ working on campuses across the world. Most found the human curriculum rather tedious but understood that the children under their care would need these skills to survive on earth, in human societies.

The Plumbers had a headquarters on earth, every alien visiting or taking up residence on earth had to check in and out, giving details on their intentions. Kevin Levin and Ben Tennyson worked in the Bellwood branch. Gwen however found she was more useful as a teacher.

She wrote the agenda on the board, listing what had to get done by the ending bell of school so her students could be forewarned and on task. The second graders were very bright but they still had the boundless that was seemingly built into kids and as such often had very short attention spans. Besides the agenda was to help her keep things moving at the correct pace too.

She updated the classroom helper chart and checked to make sure none of her students had a birthday that day. She secured her weapons, a dagger, a staff and a bullwhip, into the wall safe and put the only way to get into said wall safe into her belt.

The bell rung and her students flooded in, flying, running, and slithering all while talking, laughing, grunting, squeaking, and hissing.

She smiled; the day had begun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two: Bunny Math (Or Black Sheep)**

_**Rated: T**_

Star charts, biology, and some very basic mathematical sense had determined that this was the month.

She learned her peak fertility days from Cooper, via some testing, and took the required days off from work. She also decided not to warn her partner, they didn't need to have him suffer from performance issues due to pressure, so all he knew was that when he got home from work the night before those two days he found a trail of her clothes leading to their bedroom. The cats were outside for some reason as well.

He could also hear moaning. With some trepidation he ventured forth, leaning in to look through the slight crack between the door and the jam to see his redhead pleasuring herself; instantly he stood at attention.

She knew he was home and was watching but continued on with her fun until his nude form hovered over her. He pulled her hands from herself and began to gently suck her juices from her fingertips while grinding himself against her to keep her moist.

-----

OVER at the Tennyson household Kenny, now a little under two years old, worked with his multiplication tables. His accelerated mental development scared his mother, Julie Tennyson (née Yamamoto) slightly. It was normal because of the extremely unique mixture of alien heritage he inherited from his father, Wielder of the Omnitrix, Ben Tennyson.

Physically Kenny looked like a five-year old at most and looked very much human.

But Julie loved him more than anything or anyone else, and yes that included her parents and/or Ben.

"Mama," Kenny started out before pausing, before continuing, "Am I an ab-abom-abomination?"

"No!" she assured him swiftly, outraged, "Who on earth told you that?!"

"Some human kids, they say learned in Social Studies that your Grandpa was a very bad man and planned the attack on Pearl Harbor; Mama, what's Pearl Harbor?" he jumped from the table and went to his bag to pull out a wanted poster and came back handing it to her.

The man on the poster was in fact not her Grandfather, but a great uncle. Her stomach clenched as she looked at Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. She was pretty used to being distrusted because of her affiliation with him and his great betrayal of America but she had hoped that by giving Kenny Ben's surname that he'd be spared. Someone had drawn devil horns and a goatee onto the picture of Admiral Yamamoto, in dress Japanese military uniform and looking very regal, to accentuated his evilness.

"Kenny listen," she breathed out softly, "you'll hear many things about this man, my great-grand uncle, but please understand he didn't want to do as he did but had a duty to his emperor and was stuck. He loved America, he had lived and gone to college here, but his duty…you know what duty means?"

"No."

"A duty is something you have to do, sometimes you can get out of doing it but sometimes you can't. My family comes from a country called Japan by everyone speaking English. The Japanese people are very devoted to honor and duty. Back then it was every person's sworn duty to do whatever the emperor, the king, asked them to do; even kill, even their own family, on his order. Do you understand?"

"I think so."

"My great-grand uncle, this man, was a genius Admiral in the Japanese Navy and the emperor, a man named Hirohito, chose him to plan an attack on America. He didn't want to but because the Emperor asked him to he had to. He had no other choice but to do it or kill himself. He was not a bad man; he was not an evil man but did what he had to do. He planned what happened but wasn't involved with carrying it out."

A cuckoo clock cuckooed just as the door swung open, "Daddy!" Kenny abandoned his work to run and hug his father. Julie chuckled and began cleaning up but she paused when she felt a pair of lips press to her temple.

"Everything go smoothly today?" was his murmured question.

"Yeah," was the reply, "You?"

"Same old, same old."


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three: The Crab Constellation **

_**Rated: T**_

"Ms. Tennyson, listen to me," Daniel begged her, coming to her desk during recess. His eyes were full of tears. He wore all white; his fraternal twin Didi wore all black.

"Julie Tennyson is in danger, there's a lump in her left boob. Please warn them, if they can catch it right now they can save her," there were tears in his eyes.

Gwen nodded, knowing that the twins were each gifted with second sight. Daniel, in white, saw the bad things of the future while Didi, in black, saw the good things. They were both purely human.

Immediately she had her cell phone out demanding Julie go to Cooper and have a mammogram, specifically of the left one. She shut the cell phone and set it down, laying her head in her arms on the desk. If Julie died it was game over. Ben would completely absolutely lose it; he would become worse than Ghostfreak. They would have to kill him and then Kenny would have lost both parents in a matter of hours between them. Christ, what had that family done to deserve such a possible future?

"Ms. Tennyson," Didi began, "this might not be the best time to tell you but there's a baby in your tummy…"

Gwen groaned, feeling like a terrible person because she was suddenly happy at such a bad time. Her cell phone rang and she instantly had it open only to have Julie freaking, howling, in her ear.

"Cancer!" was the one word she could make out clearly and she thought she heard, "Stage two!"

"Julie, Julie," she broke into the conversation, "Calm down okay? You caught it early enough and alien medication works a lot better than human. Don't worry about anything today okay. I'll call Ben and have Kevin grab Kenny. You are going to get through this. What's Cooper saying about this?"

"Double e-emergency mastectomy, in an hour. He's really panicking, doesn't want to take chances."

"Good." Gwen nodded, "I've got to let you go now okay? I gotta call the boys. Will you be alright with just Coop?"

"Y-Yeah, yeah."

"Alright. Call if you need to talk. Bye."

"Bye."

She hung up, feeling like a terrible person for doing so, but immediately dialed for Ben. As soon as the C-word was out of her mouth in conjunction with Julie's name his phone disconnected. She then called Kevin and he agreed to pull Kenny out but to not tell him what was going on.

"She's gonna be alright." Didi informed her as soon as she was free, "It hadn't gone anywhere but her boob."

The redhead gave a sigh of relief and, as a thank you, wrote them both passes for ice cream sundaes from the school café.

When the class came back in she stood before the class and told them, "Guys, something big's happening in my family so I'm really distracted and as such it isn't fair for me to try to teach you so the rest of the day is a free day."

They did not cheer, noting her grim vibes, but each quietly began reading and doing homework instead of playing or coloring. She blinked in surprise, before smiling thankfully and repaying them by adding a few more points towards a party day on the behavior chart before retreating to her desk and waiting for any news. Just because Didi saw that the cancer didn't hurt Julie doesn't mean that something else wouldn't go wrong.

Two hours later her phone rang again, and this time it was Ben, "She's clear." She let out another sigh of relief, "Gwen, I gotta ask a favor."

"Anything."

"Can Kenny spend—?"

"You don't even have to ask Ben; we can handle him."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Take care of her okay?"

"I will. Be safe alright."

"Course, same to you two. Bye."

"Bye."

"Is everything okay?" Tina, an elfish girl, asked softly.

Gwen smiled, "Yeah, crisis averted."

"Good." Tina turned to her classmates, whistling loudly to gather their attention, "Everything's okay! Time to have fun!"

And the class began playing and coloring as they usually would on a free day.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part Four: Big, Strong and Clumsy **

_**Rated: K+ **_

He was happy but terrified. She had just become a lot more fragile and vulnerable. He knew he was a danger even if he didn't mean to be. How many times had he bruised her by just hugging her, how may of her bones had he broken by saving her in the midst of a battle? How was he going to be able to trust himself to touch her, hold her, now? He knew that if he messed up, if he accidently hurt her in such a way to cause a miscarriage she would never forgive him.

It didn't matter that Devlin, the baby she was now carrying, had accidently come to their time from the future, a couple years back, as a healthy eight year old. Kevin knew better than anyone that the future, especially a future so far off, wasn't set in stone. Things could go wrong and it would be entirely his fault. He was very tempted to make her move back in with her folks to keep her safe but then realized that that Tennyson household wasn't at all equipped to handle such a situation. She would become a target for their enemies; there was now a big red bull's-eye on her back.

So he was torn between keeping her within arms' reach and yet as far away himself as possible.

She seemed to sense his unease and purposely created situations about the house that made him touch her, trying to get him to trust himself.

"What's the matter Kev?" she finally confronted him.

"Nothing." He avoided her eyes.

"Something's bugging you." Her eyes narrowed in their trademarked fashion.

When he stayed silent she walked forward, wound her arms about his neck and whispered, "I trust you."

"You shouldn't," he told her sullenly, "I always hurt you by accident and if that happens now we could lose him and then I'd lose you."

"Nothing will happen," she assured him softly, "You won't hurt us; I promise."

"You can't say that." He told her angrily, "If I accidently backhanded you into the wall you'd have no time to prepare or stop me. I could squeeze you too tightly or—"

"Stop it; you won't hurt us. Everything will happen as it should. He came back to see us didn't he? So obviously he's born alive. Stop worrying so much, you'll make yourself sick."

He nodded, smiling just to relieve her of worrying about him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five: Coffee Withdrawal Syndrome **

_**Rated: K+**_

"Is she asleep again?" Maria asked, staring at her sleeping teacher. Maria was a human girl.

"I think so." Tina replied.

"Why?"

"She's been without coffee for a couple weeks."

"But isn't coffee like grown-up batteries?"

"Kinda."

"Then why won't she drink it?"

"Because it's baby-poison."

"Huh?"

"She's having a baby right?"

"Yeah…?"

"Something in coffee and soda can hurt babies before they're born."

"Ohhhh…what hurts them?"

"I dunno." Tina shrugged, "I think it's the stuff that keeps grown-ups awake which is why she's asleep."

"Because she can't drink her wake-up stuff because it'll hurt her baby?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"I feel bad for her…"

"I do too, Ria."

Maria bit her lip, "Should we wake her up?"

"Nah, not til recess's over, let her nap."

"Okay. Should we call Mr. Levin?"

"No, there's nothing wrong and he'll freak over nothing."

"Okay. Should we go get her some food from the cafeteria?"

"…Yeah, she might be hungry when she wakes up."

"What can we get her?" the two girls began leaving the classroom, shutting the door carefully quietly behind them.

"Grain-O's should be okay…and regular milk."

"Juice too?"

"She likes orange juice…"

"You get the cereal and milk, I get the juice?"

"Right."

----

"Ms. Tennyson," she became aware of a persistent poking sensation and groaned, slowly sitting up. Note to self, bring a pillow.

"Ah heck," she muttered as her eyes focused and she realized where she was at, "not again."

"No worries, Ms. Tennyson," Tina assured her, "it was like five minutes to recess and the bell just rang to come in."

"It's not right though." She protested, "I'm here to guide you and yet I'm asleep…"

"It's fine." Tina pointed to the food, "Its reading time anyways; eat and you'll be awake enough for math. We retook roll, Tony and Timmy still aren't here. And Jenny got suspended for fighting."

"I should give you guys half my pay…"

"Nah, but cupcakes are good."

Gwen nodded and, with a flick of her finger, added more points to the behavior chart then her vision blurred, "Right, can't use my powers…" she kept herself perfectly still and absorbed manna from the plants which decorated the room.

"Do we need to call Mr. Levin?" Tina asked a bit worriedly.

"Nope." Gwen smiled, "everything's fine."

"Right…" the girl still looked unconvinced but shrugged and went to read. They all knew the speed-dial set up on the redhead's phone should anything go wrong.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part Six: "Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream…" **

_**Rated: T**_

Nightmares. He could always tell when he was dreaming; something about the scenarios or the people's behaviors tipped him off. Or the world would be too perfect and, then as soon as he resolved to let himself enjoy the miraculous occurrence of a good dream, it all went to hell. His unique brand of hell.

This were the dreams that would make him sit bolt-right in bed, crying, sweating, his muscles twitching and jerking and his heart going faster than the speed of sound. This were the dreams that would almost make him swear off sleeping and he thanked his good luck that, as he had alien blood flowing through him, he didn't have to sleep as much as a mortal. Only two nights a week he had to suffer. Eight nights a month and only ninety-six nights a year.

Those ninety-six nights nearly destroyed him. He was haunted by what he had done, what he had been and what he could still do if he ever went back to that dark state of mind.

He could destroy everything he had if he wasn't careful enough. His dreams proved that. He could break her neck, her back. Even with alien medical knowledge there was no way she could completely recover from those types of injuries.

And what about Devlin, when he was born? He could crush his own son by pure accident; he could drop him or get angry and lose his patience.

And what if he couldn't keep them safe? Him and Gwen already lived a high-risk life; she would be pretty vulnerable soon, she already couldn't use her powers, and Devlin would be a sitting duck for the first few years of his life unless he speed grew like Kenny did.

And then there were the things he couldn't control. What if Devlin mutated like he did? What if psycho-sociopathic tendencies ran in Levin blood? What if one of his former business partners sought revenge by using Devlin somehow? Gwen would never forgive him.

"Nightmares?" her soft voice asked and he looked to see her staring up at him.

"Yeah, nothing for you to worry about though…"

She sighed, rolling her eyes, sitting up. Her legs folded off to the side, "What happened in this one?"

"Nothing."

"Kev…"

"Seriously, nothing."

"Everything will be alright Kev; nothing will go wrong; you won't hurt us…" she kept up this mantra of reassurances until she had fallen back to sleep, her head on his shoulder.

He could only hope she was right.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part Seven: Quickening**

_**Rated: K+**_

They were watching a movie, curled up on the couch together, when she suddenly gasped and began frantically feeling around for his hand.

"What's wrong?!" he demanded.

"Shhhh, you'll scare him; give me your hand."

He did so bemusedly, as the first few strand's of "Little Priest" began to emit from the movie, as she explained, "For a couple weeks now I've been feeling like there's butterflies in my stomach but I couldn't be sure because it always appeared right after I ate and could've been just a gas bubble or something but it's—he's been getting stronger and you might be able to feel him now…"

'C'mon Dev, let him feel you,' she thought and a second later a goal-scoring kick was given to her right-side kidney, 'I need that!'

But Kevin had felt him and that made her happy; besides she could function on one perfectly working kidney right?

"He's gonna be strong isn't he?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah, just like you."

Before he could respond Ajit, Anyando, and Aza came loping in. Anyando took up residence on the remaining section of couch.

Ajit and Aza took their places at their owners' feet.

Gwen chuckled as Kevin gave a resigned sigh; having the three cats was like having three kids, this meant almost zero alone time.

But as they went back to watching the movie she nestled deeper into his hold, her head resting on his shoulder as she began to drift off.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part Eight: Last Day of Work (For Awhile)**

_**Rated: K+**_

"Hey Miss Tennyson!" a familiar voice called, making Gwen turn to see Clare Barton running up to her, "Whoa! You got _**fat**_!"

"Yeah Clare," the redhead chuckled, "I got fat…"

Clare's eyes went yellow for a brief moment before going normal as she smiled, "You're having a baby!"

"Very good, you've been practicing. Can you tell what it is?"

The girl's eyes glowed again, "Mostly human…a boy though so no Anodite powers possible…" they went normal again.

"Right again. How's your life?"

"Mommy and Daddy had another baby," Clare told her friend excitedly, "a boy so he's human, his name is Noah."

"Tell them congratulations for me…"

"I will; and now I got friends too, they don't think I'm freaky anymore…hey, shouldn't you be at home? Chilling on your couch or somethin'?"

"Yeah," Gwen laughed again, "this's my last day here for awhile."

"Will you bring him to school?"

"When he's a few months old I will, you're welcome to stop by my classroom to meet him when I do."

"Miss Tennyson!" another familiar voice shouted; Tina came running up, panting, "We've been all over the place looking for you, you really shouldn't wear the cloaker…"

"I know he asked you to watch me," the adult started tiredly, "but really, you're taking this too far…"

"Yell at us once you're sitting down," Tina whistled and two small Four-arms appeared, carrying a recliner between them. It had been modified by adding strong two-by-fours to the bottom, like a throne built to be carried on servant shoulders.

"Oh for G—I'm gonna have to talk to him about this…"

The recliner was deposited behind her and with a resigned sigh she settled herself into it.

"Comfy?" Tina asked.

"Yeah I am," she sulked; this was embarrassing, her own students babysitting her on her husband's orders.

"Good, chop chop Luke, Lucky. Back to the classroom! And don't drop her or we're all dead!"

"But I have yard duty this week!" the redhead protested as she was lifted from the ground.

"No worries Miss Tennyson, the class is stationed everywhere possible covering your absence."

"That isn't right! It's not your job or responsibility!"

"We know that, but we wanna help out; Clare, you can join us in the room."

Clare nodded, starting to follow them, "Miss Tennyson, let them help you."

"Not you too!"

She laughed.


	9. Chapter 9

**Part Nine: Overdue**

_**Rated: K+**_

"C'mon Dev," she muttered, almost dying in the first of the summer heat, "you gotta come out at some point." She was nearing three weeks overdue and she was miserable. Her due date had been in the nice cool, last week of spring. Apparently her math had been off and he had been conceived too early.

So now she sat in front of the high powered air conditioner, in a bikini (she knew how bad that looked on her at this point but she couldn't bring herself to care), pigging out on chocolate ice-cream.

"The world isn't that scary you know," she continued to talk, as if trying to convince Devlin to be born that day, "Especially with our family; granted your father had had a rough time of things here but his family was a bunch of monsters, other than your Grandpa Devlin Levin of course. He was a great man, a Plumber like your great Grandpa Max. Max is dying to meet you you know…"

Could you guilt-trip an unborn child?

"So's the rest of the family, especially your dad. He may be a bit…_**odd**_ at times but he's a good man. No matter what you'll find out about his past always know that he is a good man."

Yes her thoughts were being incredibly random that day.

"Hiya cuz!" Ben came into the room, Kenny in his arms. Ben moved to hug her but she growled, "Try it and you're dead as soon as he's out." This caused Ben to whimper and back up in fear.

"Give her a break Ben," Julie came in as well, "She's miserable and extra body heat is not gonna help; how're you doing, heat aside?"

"Pretty okay."

"How overdue?" Julie sat beside her; Ajit had come to collect Kenny to keep him out of their hair.

"Almost three weeks, short of it by three days; if it doesn't happen soon we're inducing…"

"Well there are ways to induce at home…"

"We've tried literally everything."

A contraction ripped through her but she only sighed and looked at her watch, it was probably just another false start.

They came regularly for about an hour before a miracle happened; her water broke.

"_**YES**_!"

With a sad predictably Ben freaked out, picking up Kevin's job, as Julie gathered the bag of clothes and Gwen to get them out to the van. Kenny called the family, happily but calmly telling them that the baby was coming.

Cue massive amounts of unneeded panic, as if such an occasion was unprecedented. Julie and Gwen laughed together about this. Somehow half the family was able to beat them to Cooper's house, but Kevin was not amongst them…


	10. Chapter 10

**Part Ten: Impeccable Timing**

_**Rated: T**_

"Where the hell are you?!" Ben demanded over the phone.

"Some moron started a fifty car pileup!"

"Gwen just went into labor!"

"_**WHAT**_?!"

The next few sentences were so colorful and they cursed every deity ever created anywhere in the universe that they could not be repeated.

Well this was just _**perfect**_.

"Wonderful timing eh?"

"Yep. Where are you?"

"At the edge of town."

"Why?"

"Because the type of ice-cream she wanted isn't found in Bellwood."

"Be thankful it wasn't fresh sea food. Can't you just dump the car…"

"…?"

"I can't believe you have to think about that…your wife is giving birth to your son and you had to think about abandoning the car…"

"Not about dumping the car! I was seeing if there're any shortcuts!"

"Just get your ass here!"

A half hour later and the father-to-be arrived on a hoverboard that was much too small for him, crashing into a wall.

"I'm good!" he moaned; the board was toast though and the tub of ice-cream lay upsetted on the ground.

"You brought the ice-cream?" Ben asked incredulously; what was _**wrong**_ with this man?

"I wanted to have a peace-offering on hand; you didn't hear Julie cursing your very existence but I did." Kevin tried to stand up only to yelp, fall back down and then he noticed that his leg was at a very odd angle.

"Well this's going great."

So Kevin entered the lab being carried by Ben, leg limply hanging.

"Hey Kev," Gwen greeted, "Having a good day so far?"

"Sure." He was settled onto a gurney beside hers, his leg being splinted, "So how long?"

"Two and a half hours. I gotta tell you I am so not looking forward to this part…"

In the background Julie cackled almost manically.

"Just try not to break my hand," he requested before lowering his voice and continuing, "And how bad can it be? You've survived the pain before right?"

"But what if I only got a taste?"

"Am I hearing right? Gwendolyn Tennyson, afraid of a little pain?"

A hard, determined look settled on her face, "No I am not!"

"Prove it."

"_I will_."


	11. Chapter 11

**Part Eleven: Déjà Vu **

_**Rated: T**_

With a strange sense of Déjà Vu it began. Two minutes of horrible pain were now stretched over eighteen hours, except there was no pillow to bite to muffle her screams.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" she screamed at him.

"YOU JUMPED ME!" he yelled back, just to keep her mind preoccupied. And then he was hit over the head, by Cooper's girlfriend, with a waffle iron, no less who ordered, "Dontcha yell at her!"

Although by then he was on pain medication for his leg and thus couldn't feel the hairline fractures in his skull.

Sixteen and a half hours in it was time for the actual birth.

"C'mon Gwen!" Everyone encouraged, "You can do this!"

"YOU KNOW WHAT PEOPLE? **FUCK YOU**! THIS HURTS LIKE _**HELL**_!"

They, much to her fury, laughed at the ironic echo.

But anger gave her the needed strength and endurance, if only so she could get up and kill them, to complete the task.

Devlin entered the world, completely silent but he stretched and yawned as if telling them, "Okay, I'm out; now let me sleep…"

He stayed silent as he was poked and prodded, although he did seem to become annoyed as time went on and they didn't leave him alone. He was passed to his mother and simply nuzzled to her chest, requesting his first meal silently as well. Once full he merely burped, on his own, and then yawned again, going to sleep.

Gwen looked to Kevin, "You wanna hold him?"

He hesitated.

"You'll do fine," she assured him, passing over the child.

Devlin opened his eyes tiredly, wanting to see who had him this time. The heart beat sounded familiar. Oh, this was the person called "Dad". He yawned once more and closed his eyes again.

"Such an odd child…"


	12. Chapter 12

**Part Twelve: Is Silence Golden?**

_**Rated: K+**_  
Over the next two weeks Devlin remained absolutely positively dead silent and this scared his entire family out of their minds; normalcy was overrated to the joint Tennyson-Yamamoto-Levin clan, but even Kenny had cried as a newborn.

A silent child could be hiding a very dangerous problem.

But Cooper, and Verdona, had deemed him completely healthy; nervously the families began to joke that the two genetic loudmouths had canceled each other out in the boy.

Weeks turned to months and Devlin speed grew. At two months, he was developmentally at six months, he began crawling. He again didn't make a sound and the only reason they knew he escaped the blanket they had set him on, outside to get fresh air, was Ajit having to carry him back to the blanket by his footies several times. Thankfully the yard was separated from Bem's yard and from the horses' pastures by tall cement walls.

It was on Gwen's birthday (Devlin was developmentally at nine months) that he made a sound. Not just a sound, but a word, 'Mama'; it had happened as she bent down to pick him up from his playpen he squeaked, "MmmmMama!" She dropped him in shock; the cats cleverly caught him and she grabbed him up again, asking him to repeat what he said which he happily did and it was from this point onwards that they could not shut him up. His vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds, expanding by at least five words a day.

"Hi!" he said to his mother's students from his car seat.

"He talks!" a human girl, Sasha, yelped, jumping back in fear. Babies weren't supposed to talk.

"Yeah, he does," Gwen chuckled, unbuckling Devlin and setting him to crawl on the floor, "babies with alien blood grow a lot faster than human babies."

"Oh."

The kids all crouched down to better meet their visitor.

"Miss Tennyson," a centaur like alien boy named Adrian started out uncertainly, "why did you bring him here?"

"Kevin had to go into work today," she told them, "There was a problem our partners needed help with so I brought Dev today. He'll stay quiet enough for every to go normally, right Dev?"

"Yeah Mama," the boy nodded, looking up to his mother, "I have blocks?"

"Yep. I brought your blocks." She shrugged off the backpack, quickly setting up a foldable playpen, putting him in it and handing him his toys before turning to her students, "Like I said everything'll be normal today except for the fact that the doors need to stay shut."

"Why?" a Tinkerbell sized pixie girl squeaked as she bobbed midair.

"Because Dev's an escape artist…"

"Oh. Okay."

And everything did go normally until the lunch bell for the third and fourth grades had rung. Gwen shot a quick glance over to the playpen, she had been doing so every five minutes, and "Not again!"

She whistled loudly, causing her students to freeze as was procedure, asking, "Does anyone have Dev with them?"

They shook their heads before automatically beginning to search. Gwen checked under her desk, in the cubbyholes' area and back in the supply closet before somebody brought it to her attention, "Um Miss Tennyson? The door to the playground is open…"

Her head snapped up, her face paling, and her pupils going to pinpoints.

Lily, Tina's younger sister, climbed onto a desk, whistled for everyone's attention (poor Gwen was frozen in sheer horror and thus unable to give any directions) and beginning to sprout orders, "Okay people we got a very mobile alien baby on the loose. Lily go find Tina and the old gang. Get them to search the playground, the fields, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade hallways."

"On it!" and she zipped out.

"Remember guys, if you have powers that can help, use them! If anyone finds him start singing 'Row, row, row your boat' really loudly, everyone else who hears it start copying and tell the humans too! Desk group A, preschool and kindergarten—"

"Right." Five kids ran from the room.

"Group B, first and second hallways."

"Yes Ma'am!" they left, five in all.

"Group C, cafeteria and office hallways. Tell the office people and the lunch-ladies too."

"Yes ma'am!" another five left.

"Group D, bathrooms and the library—"

"Yes Ma'am," the last four left.

"Miss Tennyson, don't worry we'll find him!" and she dashed out.

Gwen woke from her comatose state and ran out as well, beginning to search on her own while keeping an ear sharp for the signal.

She was such a screw-up; what good mother loses track of her only son?

After two hours, a change of lunches, and no rowing of boats a familiar voice called, "Miss Tennyson! Are you looking for something?!"

She spun around to see Clare walking up to her, with Devlin on her hip; he was sucking on a lollipop and grinning devilishly. He apparently had far too much of his father in him. Clare herself was grinning.

"Dev!" she grabbed him from her young friend, holding him close, "Thank god; where did you find him? How did you know he was mine?"

"Oh please," she rolled her eyes, "Those green eyes of his?…he was in the fifth grade girls' bathroom. I gave him the lolly by the way…"

"Devlin Levin," Gwen turned on her boy; he gave her the puppy dog eyes but they wouldn't save him this time, "How many times have I told you not to crawl off?! We don't have the cats here to catch you so I trusted you! You are so grounded, in the energy pen! And just wait til your dad hears about this… don't you know what could've happened?" he began pouting, crossing his arms.

"Um, Miss Tennyson?" Clare broke into the rant timidly, "Do ya want me to signal the others?"

"Yes…thank you; really, thank you."

"No prob." She cleared her throat and began screeching the song. Forty kids soon converged on the spot, each shouting and cheering that the missing boy had been found before going into a mob, scolding him. He just sat there, glaring at them, with arms crossed and the sucker sticking out of his mouth.


	13. Chapter 13

**Part Thirteen: Devlin versus Dad **

_**Rated: K+**_

Devlin sat in his groundation pen, an energy construct, pouting. He had no toys, the television was on a major news network, and the animals were outside. He was absolutely bored.

"_**PPPAAAAPPPPAAAA**_!" he suddenly cried out.

"Nuh uh, Dev," Kevin leaned against the door jam, drying his hands with a dish towel, "that's not gonna work on me runt. You screwed up and now you have ta deal with it."

"Why Mama mad?" his lower lip began to tremble; that always broke the adults.

"We've told you; you could've gotten hurt very badly. We told you not to run off and you did anyways so…" Kevin shrugged, being unaffected by the quivering lip, "Believe or not this is for your own good."

"Kenny never in trouble!"

"He never disobeys his parents either."

Devlin pouted once more, crossing his arms; this made the older Levin laugh.

"You mean!"

"Kid, you have _**no**_ idea."

"Mama not mean!"

"No, she's not. But you still ain't getting out early. Give up."

"No."

"I so wish you never learned that word."

"Hate you."

"What are you? A teenager? Oh well, you don't mean that."

"What if do?"

"You'll grow outta it; besides sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

"You stupid."

"'Course I am, 'course I am," Kevin chuckled again. Go with the flow.

The alarm went off, signaling that a call from the office was coming in.

Still chuckling, Kevin went to deal with it. Devlin was kind of stunned, he had never lost to an adult before.


	14. Chapter 14

**Part Fourteen: Nightmares Revisited**

_**Rated: K+ **_

It was Kevin's tremors that woke her but then she heard Devlin's whimpers; she found the boy asleep, suffering nightmares.

She frowned; Kevin she could understand, his early life was horrible; but what had given Devlin nightmares?

He hadn't seen or heard anything scary or any of their battles; he hadn't been in any accidents or tough spots; in fact his life had thus far been very idyllic.

She tried rubbing his back and whispering soothingly but when that didn't work and Kevin began whimpering in his nightmares she began singing, softly;

"There's a monster that lives 'neath your bed/  
Oh for crying out loud/ it's a futon on the floor/  
He must be flat as a board/

There's a creature that lurks behind the door/  
Though I've checked there 15 times/  
When I leave then he arrives/  
Every night/

Tell the monster that lives 'neath your bed/  
To go somewhere else instead/  
Or you'll kick him in the head/

Tell the creature/ that lurks behind the door/  
If he knows what's good he won't come here no more/  
Cause you'll kick in his butt at the count of four/

Goodnight demon slayer/ goodnight  
Now its time to close your tired eyes/  
There are devils to slay/ and dragons to ride/  
If they see you coming/ hell they better hide/

Goodnight/ goodnight/ goodnight/  
Goodnight my little slayer/ goodnight/

Tell the monster that eats children/ that you taste bad/  
And you're sure you'd be the worst that/ he's ever had/  
If he eats you/ don't fret/ just cut him open with an axe/  
Don't regret it/ he deserved it/ he's a cad

Tell the harpies/ that land on your bed post/  
That come count of five you'll roast them alive/  
Tell the devil /its time you gave him his due/  
He should go back to hell/ he should shake in his shoes  
Cause the mightiest/ scariest/ creature is you/

Goodnight demon slayer/ goodnight/  
Now its time to close your tired eyes/  
There are devils to slay/ and dragons to ride/  
If they see you coming/ hell they better hide

Goodnight/ goodnight/ goodnight/  
Goodnight my little slayer/ goodnight

I won't tell you/ there's nothing 'neath your bed/  
I won't sell you/ that it's all in your head/  
This world of ours is not as it seems/  
The monsters are real but not in your dreams/  
Learn what you can from the beasts you defeat/  
you'll need it for some of the people you'll meet

Goodnight demon slayer, goodnight/  
Now its time/ to close your tired eyes/  
There are devils to slay/ and dragons to ride/  
If they see you coming/ hell they better hide/

Goodnight/ goodnight/ goodnight/  
Goodnight my little slayer/ goodnight/

Goodnight/ goodnight/ goodnight  
Goodnight."

Tears leaked from her eyes as she though about the truth of the song. Imagined monsters weren't real sure, but they faced monsters everyday and their children would probably do the same. Plumber work was in the blood, it was the family business in a sense…

But her boys were at peace for the night and that was all she could guarantee for the time being. Silently she slipped back into her bed and tried not to think of the future…

_**END**_


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